Safeguarding Our Elections: Enhanced Electoral Integrity Planning

This article will discuss several integrity-related risks facing election administrators in both established and emerging democracies and suggest common solutions to properly address these vulnerabilities and thereby safeguard the credibility of elections. These risks sometimes stem from election fraud perpetrated by domestic or foreign entities attempting to undermine the credibility of a country's election by breaching its information technology infrastructure. The integrity of an election could also be jeopardized by insufficient planning by an election authority resulting in unreliable results due to undertrained election officials. However, not all challenges to holding elections stem from individuals intending to directly defraud electoral processes or malpractices conducted by election administrators. In some instances, external factors such as adverse weather conditions and public health situations can also undermine the credibility of elections unless properly addressed. This article argues that irrespective of often drastically different conditions, both established and emerging democracies could significantly increase electoral fraud and malpractice resiliency by broadening election authorities' planning requirements. Currently, very few election authorities take a hard look at the integrity risks facing elections, such as fraud, malpractices, or unforeseen events, and therefore lack an effective game plan. By conducting an Integrity Risk Assessment, based of which an Integrity Risk Control Plan will be developed, Election Management Bodies (EMBs) are in a significantly better position to mitigate fraud, avoid maladministration, and be ready to initiate an effective disaster plan should part of the country face a national disaster or an epidemic.